Me, the environment, and my art

August ’07 Energy Usage

Gas: The average US household uses 1,000 therms per year (average of 83.33 per month). I was at 5.1 therms, or down 93.88%. However, since this is during the summer and the real test will be during the winter, I figure to be down 90% in the winter I will have to go without heat, and I just don’t see that happening. I do have some logs from a large tree I fell – but not enough to heat the house for the winter.

Electric: The average American household uses 917 units per month for electricity (1,100 per year). My August bill of 282 was down:

* 26 kWh from previous month.

* 69.25% from the national average.

* 56.62% compared to my own usage during this time last year.

Auto Gas: The average person uses 41.67 gallons of gas per month for their car. In August purchases totaled 21.44 gallons.

* this is a decrease of 48.55% from the average.

Trash: The average American produces 1,642.5 pounds of trash per year, or 31.58 pounds per week. A 90% reduction of this would be 3.15 pounds. I have not been weighing my trash, because I am pretty sure that the kitty litter alone weighs more than 3.15 pounds. I am down to one bag of trash (or less) per week after all my recycling and composting, so I feel pretty good about that. I have also found a place locally that takes misc. items (toilet paper rolls, milk containers, etc.) to be reused by teachers for art projects.